Can we agree Vikes are chumps?

November 25, 2012|By Jack M Silverstein | For RedEye

There is one thing on this Earth that Bears fans and Packers fans agree on, and that is their dislike for the Minnesota Vikings.

They tend to be feckless beasts, and their fans are no better. They are a dome team masquerading as cold-weather warriors. They are rarely terrible and sometimes excellent, yet their most famous moments involve successful teams decaying at the seams right when victory seemed most assured. (See: 1999 and 2001 NFC championship games)

I mention this because while there were a lot of downsides to Sunday's 28-10 Bears win, the upside was they pounded the Vikings into the dirt like the chumps they've always been.

Jay Cutler was back from his concussion, and he played well enough to lead the Bears to three offensive touchdowns. Brandon Marshall caught 12 passes, two shy of the franchise mark for receptions in a game. Minnesota's Jared Allen was held without a sack, and though Adrian Peterson nabbed his first 100-yard game against the Bears since 2008, he didn't score, fumbled once and basically fumbled a second time when he and QB Christian Ponder doofed up a handoff.

The win makes the Bears 2-1 in the division, 5-1 at home, and gets them back to their winning ways after two bad weeks.

That's the good news.

The bad news is the Bears continue to put the "offensive" in offensive line, as four linemen played positions Sunday they did not play last week. Matt Forte, Devin Hester, Charles Tillman, Lance Louis and Chris Spencer all left with injuries. And the stubbing out of a mediocre Vikings team doesn't exactly revitalize the Bears' identity as Super Bowl contenders, not after losing two straight weeks to playoff-bound foes.

But why split hairs? I attended the game with friends, and in the bathroom after the game the packed house of urinal-waiters were in high spirits. One patron stepped inside the bathroom and yelled "Da Bearss!" and we all chimed in with "Bearss! Bearss!" until our throats turned blue.